A coaching podcast with Heike Aiello and Tobias Weghorn about how to stop coaching in the problem space—and instead use appreciative coaching to expand what already works. Heike shares why she considers it “unethical to coach the problem,” and walks you through the appreciative inquiry coaching process: define, discover, dream, design, destiny (Discover, Dream, Design, Destiny). You’ll hear how to use generative coaching questions to move clients out of the “shadow” of the issue and into a more resourceful state, plus a short coaching demo where Heike coaches Tobi on making confident choices. If you want to learn coaching that creates energy (not just analysis), this episode is your playbook.

Key Learnings:

• Use appreciative coaching to reframe the client’s problem as data, then shift into a clear “what do you really want?” statement before you do any deep exploration.
• Run a simple Discover → Dream → Design → Destiny flow: collect “green dot” evidence in Discover, then turn it into future images and small learning experiments—especially when clients feel stuck.
• Craft 2–3 generative coaching questions (not “root cause” questions) that connect past success to next steps, and use “3 minutes / 30 minutes / 3 hours / 3 days / 3 weeks” prompts to make action inevitable.

Resources:

• Heike Aiello's Website: https://www.coreconnect.today/
• Heike Aiello's LinkedIn: https://de.linkedin.com/in/heikeaiello
• AIP Practitioner (Appreciative Inquiry Practitioner Magazine): https://aipractitioner.com/
• Find your Coaching Tool: https://metaFox.eu
• Try the metaFox Strengths Discovery: https://strengths-discovery.com
• Connect with Tobi on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/tobiasweghorn

Episode Chapters:

00:01 Appreciative Coaching vs. Coaching the Problem

00:02 Discover, Dream, Design, Destiny (Appreciative Inquiry Coaching Process)

00:07 Step Out of the “Shadow”: From Problem to Desired Future

00:11 Destiny in Practice: Learning Experiments, Tracking, and Fanning

00:26 Coaching Demo: Making Choices Without Regret

00:44 The Anticipatory Principle and Visualizing the Future

00:47 Generative Coaching Questions and the Five AI Principles

00:52 Making Room for the Shadow (Not “Happy Clappy”)

00:58 Where to Learn Appreciative Inquiry (AI Commons, AIP, TAOS)